Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Bad Move Gamestop?

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Apparently, reports have been made to Gamespy about PC retail box copies of the newly released 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' have been basically tampered with.  So who opened them?  Apparently it was staff at Gamestop stores.  Say what?

Yep, appears to be so.  Square Enix and OnLive packaged a Free Game Coupon in the PC retail box copy of 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution'.  So, for those who have the capabilities.  That's a pretty sweet deal.  Because OnLive doesn't cost anything to sign up for if you're using the free OnLive PC Client (then they always run crazy offers where you buy a game get the console for free, or buy the console get a game for free, and not to mention $5 Fridays).  They do have subscription based plans or outright purchases to allow customer's to stream their games from OnLive servers.  So it was pretty nice of Square Enix to include this offer from OnLive, right?  Obviously Gamestop says 'Nope...'.  Customer's who purchased the PC boxed version from Gamestop were reporting that the box has been opened and the coupon is missing.

Ok, let's get beyond the fact that a lot of people may not even decide to use the coupon.  It's the principle of Gamestop opening these units and swiping materials.  What would you say if you bought a Blu-Ray from Walmart and found they had opened the case (i.e.: the seal was broken).  I'd be a little mad.

In Gamestop's defense, I can see how they might be a little overprotective that they are selling a product which contains packing materials that potentially promotes a competitor.  However, from the PC gaming side of it, how many PC games do they actually sell when compared to console games.  I was in our local Gamestop store about a week ago, and they had literally just a handful of titles for the PC.  Enough to fill a small section of wall space no more than 4 foot wide by 4 or 5 feet tall.  Sure should Square Enix have made Gamestop aware of this before shipping the title to the game retailer?  Probably, but what's done is done with the initial batch.  They could have worked around it and had Square Enix exclude the coupon in future shipments.  Bottom line, there are other ways this could have been handled.

What I believe to be the driving force behind this fiasco is the fact that Gamestop announced earlier this week that they are planning on venturing into the games streaming market by mid-2012.  So with them making the corporate push to add a Gamestop Streaming Service why would they think it was a smart move to provide a product that gives a free game from a rival service (even one your not directly competing with right now)?  I can understand that from a business standpoint; however, this should have been addressed between Square Enix and Gamestop prior to them popping game boxes open and tossing out the coupons.  That was shady.

Personally, if I were in the market for buying a retail copy of a PC game; Gamestop is the last place I'd look locally in my area since they don't focus as heavy on PC gaming.  But after this, they will not even be on my list of stores to buy a PC game from in future.  Because who knows what they might have thrown away?

Food for thought.

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